Page 88 of Sliding Into Love
“Say it,” Ethan said, drawing a half-moon beneath the dark pink of her nipple.
“Please,” she gasped, trying to grind back against his cock.
“Please what, Ivy?” His tone seemed to undo her.
“Please touch me. Ethan, please.”
“Since you asked so nicely,” Ethan said and obliged her, moving both hands to pinch and roll her nipples between his fingers as he sucked a mark into the soft skin where her neck and shoulder met. Ivy let out a breath, and he moved his fingers lower, to press into the swollen bundle of nerves hidden there. She moaned and pressed her ass into his achingly hard cock.
His middle finger slid inside her to stroke the spot he knew would make her eyes roll and her toes curl.
And they did.
Ethan loved watching Ivy come undone from his touch. He loved the sounds she made, and he loved the way her body moved as he stroked and teased her.
He lovedher.
Ethan let the realization wash over him, then he examined it and accepted it for what it was.
“Ivy, I—” he began but didn’t know how to tell her. Couldn’t bring himself to voice it yet. “I need you.”
Ivy keened in affirmation, and Ethan gripped her hips to lift her onto his cock, pushing inside her with one swift stroke.
Softness and heat enveloped him, and his eyes closed in ecstasy as he stilled to allow her body to adjust to him. And when she moved, rocking her hips upward, he moved with her, finding a place deep within, deeper than he’d been so far.
It felt so good, so warm and soft, and sorightbeing with her.
As they moved together, Ethan found the words closer and closer to escaping the closer he came to climax.
And when they found their pleasure together, he whispered the words into her hair.
“I know,” she said.
Ivy knewher response was concerning for Ethan. But she hated the knee-jerk reaction of saying ‘I love you’ for the first time in immediate response to the other person saying it first. Not that she’d ever told anyone she’d dated she loved them. Because she hadn’t loved anyone the way she loved Ethan.
Ivy was determined toshowhim before she told him.
After the slow, sweet sex in the bath and Ethan’s revelation, Ivy was ravenous, and she said so. Ethan kissed the tip of her nose and returned to the kitchen for more food. Ivy wandered naked into his closet intending to borrow a button-up and maybe swipe a few other shirts to smuggle home when she saw his uniform hanging toward the back. Giggling, she grabbed the clothes off the hangers and sauntered back into his bedroom, where she pulled the jersey over her head, unbuttoning all but two buttons in the vicinity of her belly button.
Ethan was tossing the pizza dough in the air when Ivy found him in the kitchen like he was some kind of ripped pizza god. And he didn’t drop it or toss it into the blades of a spinning ceiling fan. He seemed good at it. Because of course, he was.
“Nowthatis sexy,” she said, watching him concentrate on tossing the dough. He’d pulled on a pair of grey sweatpants before he got started with the pizza, muttering something about “cooking naked” and “dangerous”.
Ivy leaned toward Ethan, lazily resting her elbows on the cold, dark marble counter, and drank in the sight of him in the sweatpants as he tossed the dough in the air for a final time.
When he finally looked at her, his mouth dropped open.
“I think that’s blasphemy against the baseball gods,” he said, staring at the fabric barely hiding her breasts.
“I thought you’d like it.” Ivy looked away, biting her lip.
“I do, and now I’m going to fantasize about you wearing it every time I put that jersey on, which might be problematic for my teammates.”
With an angelic smile, Ivy rounded the kitchen island and leaned past him, opening a cabinet for a glass, letting the jersey ride high on the back of her thighs. Ethan let out a sound somewhere between a snort and a grunt, and Ivy felt his hand tracing the letters written across her back in bright red.
“I’d rather you wore my real name,” he said, his voice holding a hint of melancholy as he trailed his hand over the letters and down her back.
Not too much melancholy, though, because when he reached her bare ass, he swatted a cheek and ducked away before she could retaliate. After a moment, he returned to the dough, easing it onto a pizza stone as Ivy perched in her usual spot beside him, stirring the pizza sauce.
